Charles g



(No Model.)

A O,G.GOBB. APPARATUS FOR. OBTAINING RESIDUUM CONTAINED IN WATER USED INTHE MANUFACTURE 01? GAS.

Patented 0st. 17, 1893.

. UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

CHARLES G. COBB, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO JAMES OHISHOLM,

' OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

APPARATUS FOR OBTAINING RESIDUUM CONTAINED IN WATER USED INTHEMANUFACTURE 0F GAS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 506,670, dated October17, 1893.

Application filed February 8, 1892- Serial No. 420,800. (No model.) I

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES G. COBB, a resident of Chicago, in thecounty of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Apparatus for Obtainiugthe Residuum Contained i nWater Usedin the Manufacture of Gas and other Materials, of which thefollowing, in connection with the drawings accompanying and forming apart hereof, is a description sufficient to enable those skilled in theart to understand and practice the same.

In the manufacture of gas by many of the processes now in common use,there is contained in the water discharged from the several machines anddevices employed in such manufacture a residuum which consists of tar ortarry compounds, and light oils. The specific gravity of the oils isless than the specific gravity of the water containing it, and thespecific gravity of the tar or tarry compounds is slightly greater thanthe specific gravity of such water, and the object of myinvention is toprovide an apparatus whereby both of such residual products can be takenfrom the water before such water is discharged or run to waste.

To better understand the object and purpose of my invention, it shouldbe borne in mind, that when, as is ordinarily the case, the waterdischarged from the manufacture of r gas is allowed to run to waste intoa stream of water with the residual products consisting of tar and tarrycompounds and light oils contained therein, such products, or some ofthem, may,'and Very frequently do become ignited and burn upon thesurface of the water, thus endangering, in cases where the gas plant issituated where the body of water into which the waste is allowed to runis contiguous to buildings or lumber yards, great danger from fire; andfurther that the residual products referred to are, when separated andproperly treated, of considerable value greatly in excess of the cost ofobtaining the same.

The manner in which I obtain the results sought by me is to subject thewater containing the residual products to such a process or treatment aswill remove therefrom both the tar or tarry compounds and the lightoils, and

such process may be briefly stated to be as follows: First, the water isconducted into one or more wells or sinks constructed as hereinafterdescribed and allowed to remain therein sufficiently long for the tar ortarry compounds to sink to the bottom, and of the light oils to rise tothe top of the water contained in the sink or well; second, in pumpingsuch tar or tarry compounds from such sink or well without removing thewater thereover from the well or disturbing it while in the well, andthird, in removing the light oils from the surface of the water whilecontained in such well.

In the practice of my invention it has not been found practicable tomakea single well of sufficient area to properly remove all the residuumfrom the water discharged thereinto where large quantities of gas aremanufactured, and in such cases more than one well, all howeverconstructed substantially as the herein described well, is required, thewaste water discharge pipe from the first well forming the inlet pipeinto the next well, and so on through the series. I do not illustratemore than one of such wells in the drawings, because, as stated, eachsucceeding well is a duplicate of the one herein described and all ofsuch wells enter into the process in substantially the same manner asthe firstone thereof enters thereinto.

In the drawings Figure l, is a cross-sectional view of the sink orwellon line l.-l of Fig. 2, and Fig. 2, is a sectional view on line 2-2of Fig. 1.

Similar letters of reference are used to indicate the same part, wheremore than one view thereof is shown in the several figures of thedrawings.

A, is a sink or well, constructed preferably of masonry having the sidewall or walls a, and the concrete bottom B, the well being so arrangedthat water or other liquid cannotpass through the walls or bottomthereof, either to or from such well. This well may be either round,square or oblong, as preferred. I

O, is a partition wall separating the well or sink A into twocompartments.

D, D, are holes in the partition wall 0, whereby liquid contained in oneof the com partments, as A, can be admitted into the other one thereof,as A and d, d, are gates, whereby the quantity of liquid admitted fromone compartment into the other is controlled. Gates (1, d, are,respectively, raised by means of rods 0?, (1

E, is the inlet pipe by which the liquidis admitted into the compartmentA of the well; and F, is the discharge pipe whereby the liquid isremoved from the other, A of such compartments.

Where more than one well is used,as hereinbefore stated, the dischargepipe F of the well A becomes in its turn the inlet pipe of the nextadjacent well.

G, G, are pipes extending from near the bottom of the compartments A, Arespectively, to pump H.

The manner in which my process is operated will be readily understood,by inspec tion of the drawings, to consist of the following steps:First, the liquid,as water, containing the tar or tarry compounds andthe light oils, is admitted in compartment A of the well A graduallyfilling such compartment, and the gates d, (1', being open alsogradually filling the second compartment A Without confining myself toany'dimensions herein stated, but that the process may be definitelyunderstood, I will state that the diameter of the well where the same iscircular in form, has heretofore been made from forty to fifty feet,andthe depth thereof from fourteen to eighteen, the liquid containedtherein, being, say, of a depth of ten feet, and the inlet and outletpipes E, F, of a diameter of, say, from six toten inches. In order thatthe flow of liquid through the openings D, D, shall not interfere withthe tar or tarry compounds settled in the bottom of the compartment, orwith the light oils floating on the surface of the water or such liquid,it is necessary that such openings D,D',shall be placed above thedesigned surface of the tar or tarry compounds settled on the bottom ofthe several compartments and below the light oils floating in the Well.

The proportions of the well and of the inlet and outlet pipes should besuch that very little current obtains in the well, and the pipes G, G,by means of which when the pump H is operated, the tar or tarrycompounds are moved from the well, should be placed in the well so that,but little, if any current or movement of the liquid contained in theWell shall occur near them.

The light oils floating on the top of the liquid are by me removed byskimming them off therefrom.

The tar or tarry compound and the light oils removed by my process canbe afterward suitably treated to obtain a commercial product, but saidtreatment forms no part of my invention. I It will be evident thattheherein described process of removing tar and tarry compounds and oilsfrom waste liquid, as water, is not confined to cases where the residuumconsists of the herein named products, but is equally applicable toother manufactures wherein such residuum is of different specificgravity than the liquid in which it is contained, as for instance theremoval of oil or fatty compounds and animal and vegetable products ofdifierent specific gravity, usually heavier than water, which are mixedwith water wasted from slaughter houses; and the herein describedprocess is admirably adapted to be used in relation to slaughter housesfor the removal of the residuum contained in the liquid wastedtherefrom.

Where all the residuum matter contained in the liquid is of greaterspecific gravity than such liquid, it is evident that all of suchresiduum will fall. to the bottom of the well, and hence that portion ofthe herein described process which consists in skimming 06 of thesurface of the liquid in the well the material floating thereon will beomitted. It is also evident that where the area of the well is suitablyproportioned with the area of the inlet and discharge pipes, the hereindescribed process is a continuous process, that is, a process admittinga continuous admission of liquid from pipe E to the well A and acontinuous discharge of liquid from outlet F.

It is to be understood that by the use of the term well or sink, I donot confine myself to the use of a receptacle wholly or partiallyembedded in the earth, although in practice the receptable has been soconstructed, that is, sunk or built into the earth, as the receptaclemay be built entirely above the ground, (and not of masonry,) supportedon suitable foundations. In such cases it would be ordinarily foundnecessary to pump the liquid into the Well or receptacle, while the taror tarry compounds obtained therefrom could be allowed to run, bygravity, through a discharge pipe therefor extending out of the bottomof the receptacle.

In the use of this process, the gates d, d, may be wholly or partiallyopen, dependent upon the rapidity with which the residuum material ofgreater specific gravity than liquid will settle therein, or one of thegates may be partially or wholly open, while the other is fully closed,as preferred. I

The outlet pipe F is turned down as is illustrated in Fig. 1, of thedrawings in the well A so that the end thereof shall be below thesurface of the liquid contained in the tank in order that none of thelight oils or fats floating on the surface of the liquid shall pass outof such outlet pipe F.

By the use of my apparatus with chambers having large openings betweenthe two sections thereof advantages are obtained that second receptacle,become again thoroughly mixed with the liquid, and the entire settlingor precipitation will have to be gone over again with the disadvantagealso that the coarser material held in suspension having risen to thetop, or sunken to the bottom in the first receptacle, the material heldin suspension in the second receptacle will be much less liable tosettle or rise at all, and, in any event, will require much longer timethan is required in the first receptacle, and the two receptacles willnot work in unison, but in using a receptacle with two compartmentsdivided by a comparatively thin partition, and having a large openingthrough the partition as compared with the inlet to the firstreceptacle, and the outlet to the second receptacle, no remixing of thematerial held in suspension in the liquid with such liquid will occur inthe liquid as it passes from the first to the second receptacle. Andagain,

having two compartments in one receptacle with the opening underneaththe surface of the liquid in the above compartments,

the movement of the liquid through the par tition will be so gentle thatno material which has risen above the opening in the partition, as wellas none which has settled below such openin will pass through into thesecond compartment.

By my apparatus, the two advantages above set forth are obtained, and inaddition thereto materials of difiering qualities may be obtained in thetwo receptacles,'as the lightest material of all will rise in the firstcompartment, and the heaviest of all will sink to the bottom thereof,while in the second compartment a rather heavier material will be foundat top than has risen in the first chamber, and a lighter sediment willbe obtained in the second. chamber.

Of course when there are two distinct chambers with a small outlet fromone to-the other, different matters may be separated, but in such casethe rising of the lighter matters and the settling of the less heavymaterials in the second chamber will not be nearly so rapid as wherethere is a double chamber Witha free communication between the sections.

Having thus described myinvention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

An apparatus for obtaining residual material from liquids, consisting ofa receptacle, a partition Wall in such receptacle dividing it into morethan one compartment, an inlet pipe into the first of such compartmentsand an outlet pipe from the last thereof, a com municating openingextending through the partition wall between adjacent compartments, suchopening being above the bottom of the receptacle and below the outletpipe from the lastcompartment of the receptacle and of such size as toallow liquid to flow from one compartment to the adjacent compartmentwithout disturbing the separation of residuum from the liquid whichpasses through the opening, an inlet to the outlet pipe from the lastcompartment below the surface of the liquid in the receptacle, and apipe extending from near the bottom of each compartment of thereceptacle to a pump; whereby the contents of the receptacle containedon the bottom thereof can be removed therefrom without agitation of theliquid thereover, and liquid is continuously discharged from onecompartment of the receptacle to the adjacent compartment, and from thereceptacle, from between the upper and lowerlayer of residuum in thereceptacle; substantially as described.

CHARLES G. COBB.

